(Mechelen circa 1570 – circa 1628 Brussels)
The Fôret de Soignes near Brussels with the Flight into Egypt,
oil on panel, the reverse stamped with the brand of the Antwerp panel maker’s guild and the maker’s mark GG (Guilliam Gabron active 1614–1626), 48.5 x 67.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
M.R. Payelle, France, 1954;
sale, Palais Galliera, Paris, 23 November 1972, lot 23;
with Edward Speelman, London, 1972;
with Richard Green, London until 1974;
Private collection, England, 1974;
sale, Tajan, Paris, 20 December 1994, lot 33;
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 8 December 2004, lot 13;
with Richard Green, London

Exhibited:
Aosta, Museo archeologico regionale Aosta, 16 December 2006 – 9 April 2007

Literature:
G. C. Sciolla, Cielo, terra e acque: l paesaggio nella pittura fiamminga e olandese tra Cinquecento e Seicento = [Ciels, terres et eaux]: le paysage dans la peinture flamande et hollandaise entre le XVIe et le XVIIe siècle, exhibition catalogue, Aosta 2006–07, pp. 116, 231, cat. no. 46, illustrated;
M. Erkens, Een landschap geschilderd door Denijs van Alsloot te Hoeilaart, in: Zoniën. Geschiedkundig Tijdschrift voor IJse- en Laneland, 35/2, 2011, p. 82;
D. Timmermans, ‘Enkele aanvullingen bij de schilderijen van Denijs van Alsoot’, in: Zoniën. Geschiedkundig Tijdschrift voor IJse- en Laneland, 36/1, 2012, pp. 27-29, illustrated (as dated 1616);
S. van Sprang, Denijs van Alsloot (circa 1568–1625/26): Landscape painter at the service of the court of the archdukes Albert and Isabelle, Turnhout 2014, pp. 122-23

The present work, showing a snow-bound landscape bisected by a central serpentine cluster of trees, with a road snaking away showing the Holy Family travelling in the distance on the right, and a frozen river to the left, all set beneath wintry skies is an outstanding example of the oeuvre of Denis van Alsloot. This wondrous, Flight into Egypt builds on the painterly conventions established in the Low Countries by Joachim Patinir, of setting biblical figures as only a small element in a varied narrative landscape, later refined by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, who also helped popularise winter landscapes and depictions of rural industry, as may be seen in the present work, where a small crane for lifting objects to the wooden quay beside the building by the bridge may be seen. The town hall and church spire in the distance have been identified by Michiel Erkens as the Brabantine town of Hoeilaart, set in the Sonian Forest or Forêt de Soignes, part of the former Royal hunting preserve of the Habsburg court at Brussels, where in 1599 van Alsloot became court painter to Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella who governed Flanders. The popularity of this forest setting with patrons can be testified to its depiction also in the works of van Alsloot’s followers Jacques d’Arthois and Ignatius van der Stock. The careful draughtsmanship and compositional balance of the present work is typical of van Alsloot, and may be compared with his 1608 painting Forest Landscape with Distant Castle conserved in the Getty Museum, Los Angeles. The technique of suggesting leaves by the squiggle-like brushstrokes with the appearing branches simply peter out before the carefully modulated tones of the sky and landscape is common to both works, along with the masterful dot-like notations to the rolling paysage. 

Despite his important role as court painter – his 1615 portrayal of the Ommegang in Brussels showing the Triumphal Entry of Archduchess Isabella (conserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London) is a major document of historical record (including the first depiction of the city's famous Manneken Pis statue), very little is known of van Alsloot’s life other than that he was the son of a tapestry weaver and as member of the Brussels Guild of Saint Luke between 1599 and 1625 only took on four apprentices. He often collaborated with the painter Hendrick de Clerck for the staffage in his pictures, but the careful integration in the present work of the cowled figure of Mary with the rest of the landscape and the meticulous brush strokes indicating the haloes around her and the swaddled Christ’s head suggest them to be from van Alsloot’s own hand.